1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a scuff plate for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A scuff plate is a member for protecting an edge portion (side sill) of a door opening formed in a vehicle. In recent years, there have been proposed scuff plates which luminously display a design such as characters (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2)
A scuff plate disclosed in Patent Literature 1 comprises a light guide member made of a transparent material, a light source, and a metal plate placed on an upper surface of the light guide member and including light transmission holes having respective predetermined shapes. In this scuff plate, light emitted from the light source enters the light guide member, and then goes to the exterior through the light transmission holes. Therefore, a design corresponding to the shapes of the light transmission holes is displaced on the scuff plate in a luminous manner. However, in the scuff plate disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the design corresponding to the shapes of the light transmission holes is displayed in a luminous manner, and therefore the design could not be displaced in a three-dimensional manner.
A scuff plate disclosed in Patent Literature 2 is not provided with the above-mentioned metal plate, and instead concave-convex character portions (luminous surfaces) are formed on a light guide member. Therefore, this scuff plate can display a design corresponding to the concave-convex shape in a three-dimensional manner, and therefore is excellent in design. Incidentally, for example, in the case where the distance between a power source (for supplying electric power to a light source) and the light source is large, wiring (so-called wire harness) for electrically connecting the power source to the light source is often installed in a region where the light guide member is disposed. In the scuff plate disclosed in Patent Literature 2, a groove portion is formed in the light guide member, and the wire harness electrically connecting the power source to the light source is received in this groove portion. However, the light guide member is made of a transparent material, and therefore there is a possibility that the wire harness is visually recognized through the light guide member.
Generally, the light guide member and the light source are housed or received in a box-like case. Therefore, in case the wire harness is installed along the outside of this case, it is thought that the wire harness will not be visually recognized through the light guide member. The scuff plate is provided at the boundary between the interior and exterior of a passenger compartment of the vehicle, and therefore can often be exposed to rain water. Therefore, the interior of the case need to be sealed watertight from the exterior. However, for example, in the case where a plurality of light sources are provided, and the wire harness is installed along the outside of the case, wire harness lead-out ports corresponding in number to the light sources need to be provided in the case, and also each of these lead-out ports need to be sealed watertight. Therefore, in this case, the process of producing the scuff plate becomes complicated, and the cost of the scuff plate increases. Therefore, the conventional scuff plates have a problem that the excellent design and the reduced production cost are not compatible.
Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2002-A-96680
Patent Literature 2: JP-A-2002-108257